FormerlyHemlock
Hero
I would eat rusty nails to see Hugh Laurie as Gandalf in a scene with Rowan Atkinson as Saruman.
Remember their Hamlet scene?
D&D Movie/TV D&D: Honor Among Thieves Open Discussion [Full Spoilers]
Remember their Hamlet scene?
Mad_Jack
Legend
But, not all that inaccurate... Samurai using an older tachi-style blade would be concurrent with the Crusades. And there's only about a hundred or a hundred and fifty years or so between the last of the Crusades and the general adoption of the katana in its current form.
(One of my favorite historical memes points out that the printing telegraph (the first "fax" machine) was invented in 1843, Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, and the samurai were around until 1867, so there's actually a twenty-two-year period where a samurai could have sent a fax to Abraham Lincoln...)
When I was at the CT Ren Faire a few years ago, a Native American drumming group had joined the bagpipe-and-drum group Cu Dubh for one of their performances.
I was talking with them afterward about the traditional ceremonial costumes they were wearing, and they mentioned that it would have been cool to dress up in period-appropriate garb. Which is when I pointed out to them that they already were wearing period-appropriate clothes.
DarkCrisis
Reeks of Jedi
A lot of fun. A few questions/nits
How did they escape from the dragon? That was confusing. Why didn’t it just burn them to death with its breath weapon?
Holga was killing and maiming the guards. Basically the cops. Who are good guys. The ones in the forge who caught the sneaking in/breaking the law. Yikes?
Were the cartoon characters killed? They were in the maze when the red mist hit.
The Red wizards sure like to leave their super daggers lying around. Once use perhaps?
Doric needed more screen time. Thank goodness for her prequel book. Also, she can cast spells. She does in the book. Edgin never does even in his book.
How did they escape from the dragon? That was confusing. Why didn’t it just burn them to death with its breath weapon?
Holga was killing and maiming the guards. Basically the cops. Who are good guys. The ones in the forge who caught the sneaking in/breaking the law. Yikes?
Were the cartoon characters killed? They were in the maze when the red mist hit.
The Red wizards sure like to leave their super daggers lying around. Once use perhaps?
Doric needed more screen time. Thank goodness for her prequel book. Also, she can cast spells. She does in the book. Edgin never does even in his book.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
See, she reads to me as lesbian or asexual and getting pestered by someone who, at best, she regards as a friends, but probably just as a comrade in arms. That's also very true to life, IMO.
In any case, it hardly wrecked the film for me.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
They didn't make this super-clear, but it was because it couldn't get it to ignite. It was clicking like kitchen stove and you could see the sparks but the breath wasn't burning.
So it pumped gas into the cavern/room trying to burn them, and they hid under the water and got Simon to use a cantrip to ignite the gas causing an explosion. They somehow knew they were near the surface.
No-one else thinks it's "yikes".
A) ACAB - super applies to city guards in D&D.
B) City guard are inevitably corrupt and working for a corrupt institution*. We know these guys are - they dragged people away for a back-alley execution with no trial, no justice, nothing, just murder - so they're people who are willing to commit or look away from the commission of murder. They're thus at best morally equal to a gang. Arguably worse because they pretend to be part of the justice system. Oh and they were also knowingly involved in the theft of all the money (which y'know, a lot less bad, but still makes them criminals-in-uniforms), both moving it around and putting it on the boat.
C) This is just how D&D works.
At least some of them, yes. But they weren't the actual characters, just dressed like them.
Indeed - though it was a fairly packed movie she noticeably got the short end of it.
Yeah this is though I think something difficult for audiences, because it's really a contrivance in D&D, and if virtually everyone is finger-wiggling wizards it gives things a very different tone. So I respect that they avoided this.
* = Even with Guards, Guards, part of the joke/conceit is that it's surprising that they're not corrupt, and that Vimes is so upright despite his poverty. But they're working for a corrupt and murderous totalitarian dictator and enforcing unjust laws (albeit they try not to when it's genuinely unjust).
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Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I have been in an urban campaign since the 3E days, where we're all the special auxiliary to the watch in Ptolus, handling adventurer-level threats, and one of the main themes of the campaign is that the watch is full of corrupt individuals.
My illusionist -- who has faced off with angry dragons one on one -- came closest to death when a corrupt cop sold him out to the big crime family in the city and he was tied to a chair and was in the "we're going to ask you a question or two before we start cutting things off of you" stage of interrogation and torture when the other heroes burst in at the very last second. I and the rest of the group were certain I was about to roll up a new character.
So, yeah, bad things happening to the Neverwinter guard didn't even register with me. Those dudes are stormtroopers, especially with Forge and Sofina in charge.
My illusionist -- who has faced off with angry dragons one on one -- came closest to death when a corrupt cop sold him out to the big crime family in the city and he was tied to a chair and was in the "we're going to ask you a question or two before we start cutting things off of you" stage of interrogation and torture when the other heroes burst in at the very last second. I and the rest of the group were certain I was about to roll up a new character.
So, yeah, bad things happening to the Neverwinter guard didn't even register with me. Those dudes are stormtroopers, especially with Forge and Sofina in charge.
DarkCrisis
Reeks of Jedi
They are working for the elected lord of the town. And I bet not all of them are his chosen murderous lackies. Loke
Those simply guarding the door into the keep.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
It's the stormtrooper problem. Do the heroes stop and talk to the guards serving the bad guys before knifing them? No, they don't. That probably means they kill off a number of folks who aren't evil or irredeemable.
But if it's impractical to do check in with each guard in D&D adventures, it would completely drag a D&D movie to a halt.
The trope has to win out here.
cbwjm
Seb-wejem
Besides, it looks like she knocked them out when reducing them to 0 hp
Ruin Explorer
Legend
"Just doing my job" has never really been a viable excuse in D&D.
If we let them off, why aren't we letting off the hobgoblins, orcs, and so on who work for the evil sorcerer? They're just doing their jobs! Someone of them might not be evil. Some might be there reluctantly.
But clearly the bulk of them are happy to be involved with evil being done.
And it looks very much the same here. We don't see a single guard so much as blink at engaging in murder, large-scale, organised theft (to benefit an individual, not even the city). If you choose to stay a guard whilst your buddies are corrupt and vile as heck, well, you made your bed, now it's time to lay in it.
Basically you've misread the plot by applying a layer the writers made absolutely no indication was there. If they wanted to signal some guards were good, or that they weren't hopelessly corrupt, it'd have been extremely easy to do so, and hell the guards could have helped them (though it might have seemed bizarre in D&D). Maybe in your campaign the City Watched aren't like 60%+ on-the-take or otherwise up to no good, but I daresay in most campaigns they are - or if not they're merely mercs in the employ of the upper classes, not really involved in justice.
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